Creativity

Personally, I regard bureaucratization as an endemic mental disease of the highest contagiousness and high susceptibility. Very few people seem to be immune. Age obviously offers no protection, on the contrary young people may be hopelessly affected from the very beginning of their administrative careers. The splitting up of the unity of the human being into categories, the establishment of water-tight compartments between service organizations, the growth of paper and desk decisions, promotion based on years of experience instead of on qualifications and qualities, all these must be regarded as malignant tumours in the health services of today, not to speak of the belief which always grows in any bureaucracy that problems can be solved by circulars and regulations instead of by field work. To my mind bureaucratization is the greatest instrinsic enemy of any service organization dealing with human beings and their problems.

Evang, Karl (1960), Health service, society, and medicine. Present day health services in their relation to medical science and social structures. London (Oxford University Press), 139

有人曾說過在政府工作是消磨創意，一個大學生加入政府兩三年之後，就會失去了創意。同時，我也聽過一個廣告人說，年過三十後，思考的方法會進入一個既定的模式，漸漸失去天馬行空的創造力，所以大多創意無限的廣告都是出自廿多歲小伙子的手筆。

如果以上的話是正確的話，我就是一個一點創意也沒有的人了。其實我自己也自覺自己沒有了創作能力，以前還會有一滴搞鬼新想法，近年的我不單是懶得去想，希望去想也只能是拿回舊日的爛意念，是明正言順的爛gag。工作多年，接受了專業訓練，加強了的是歸納的能力，把事件變得系統化，讓事情以一個既定的模式進行，簡單而言就是減少讓人天馬行空的機會。看來我要為自己在工作以外找回一點創意的空間。

(後記：寫完這篇文章之後，我的結論是，巿民或者政客常常要求政府有創意，這其實是妄想，大概不能實現，就好想要求在沙漠收集雨水供全世界使用。哈哈，我還是習慣地把事情歸納)